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When I was growing up, presidential primaries were where the voters weighed in on who they chose to be a party's nominee. The role of the political party was to stand back until the people had made their decision, then use its power afterwards to help the nominee win the general election.
But that was then, and this is now.
Today, the institutional power of political parties is used not only to rally the voters, but in many ways to determine the candidates. Critical questions about the future of our country are decided by essentially a handful of political operatives, a political-media-industrial elite who present themselves as arbiters of wisdom and protectors of the common good.
They believe in the power of democracy; they just don't want to facilitate it. In fact, they're not above thwarting it when it might challenge their own power or lay bare some inconvenient truths about how this country operates. They don't really think the people can be relied upon to make their own decisions about pretty much anything, least of all who should be president of the United States.
And that is where we are today, as the Democratic National Committee has decided that President Biden will be the nominee of the Democratic Party in 2024, therefore any further mutterings such as, "Hey, wait, shouldn't we have debates?" should cease.
Biden officials and their minions have used mainstream news platforms to spread the word far and wide: There will be no debates, nor any further discussion about it. Candidates other than the chosen one anointed by the DNC should take their toys and go home now. We're supposed to consider any candidates other than President Biden mere political children, and the adults in charge now consider this subject closed.
The problem is that real adults do not cut child poverty by half but then six months later fail to make permanent the tax credit that produced the cut.
Real adults would have codified Roe v. Wade when they had the chance and would do whatever they could do right now to reduce the serious harm being done to women around the country due to draconian anti-abortion laws.
Real adults would have gotten rid of the debt ceiling when they had the chance.
Real adults would recognize that people's lives are falling apart on their watch—from lack of health care, lack of housing, lack of child care, and lack of a living wage—in ways these faux adults have failed to address.
Real adults do not cave to Big Oil and ramp up fossil fuel production at the very time when the survival of the species depends on ramping it down.
Real adults do not acquiesce to the demands of insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, Big Oil, or defense contractors while putting up only a performative fight.
And real lovers of democracy would not believe they have the right to simply shoehorn a candidate into the nomination for president because, well, for no other reason than that they think it's best.
We're told we've progressed, that things are not like they were 100 years ago, that the DNC is not a group of men sitting around a table, smoking cigars, feeling themselves entitled to decide who the nominee will be. But it pretty much is: They are a modern embodiment of the arrogance of power we were warned about by President George Washington, who said in his Farewell Address, "Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally."
Why was Washington afraid of the "baneful effects" of political parties? Because he felt they weakened our democracy. Washington was concerned that "the alternate domination" of one party over another and the parties' inherent tendency to exact revenge upon those who get in their way "is itself a frightful despotism."
George was right.
This is not a time in our history to withhold choice from the electorate; people should be exposed to as wide an array of options for who should lead this country as come forward—not just from those who have enough money or institutional support to get their voices heard. It is not a time to try to force a stale and status-quo politics down our throats, when people know that what we're doing now isn't working. This is not a time in our history for government to deny the majority of Americans our rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in ways afforded to the citizens of every other advanced democracy—be it through health care, cost-free tuition to college and technical school, free childcare, paid family leave, or guaranteed sick pay or a living wage.
This is not a time to pretend that a rematch of Biden and Trump will not make voters stay home in droves. The people have a right to hear from other candidates, with other ideas. This is not a time in our history for people to acquiesce to any form of control over things that will affect our lives and the lives of our children.
Candidate suppression is a form of voter suppression, and the party that purports to be the champion of democracy should not be so wary of it in our own house. The best way to protect our democracy is through practicing it. The DNC does not have the right to determine who's "qualified" for president, when all that really means is who in their mind is qualified to perpetuate the system as it is.
The Democratic Party must allow President Biden to debate his opponents. The fate of our democracy is at stake, and only more democracy can save it.
Marianne Williamson is running for president of the United States.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
